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Every time my wife and I take our four kids to a hotel, the first thing they do is run around to every room and explore. They jump on the beds, check out all the cool things, play with the hair dryer (even though we have one at home) and gawk at the outdated TV. They love to explore new things and are in a state of wonder when we go to new places. It is actually pretty cool to watch them flutter around discovering amazing treasures.

Matthew 18:3 says “And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'”

Children live in wonder. Where anything is possible. Remember those days? The days when grabbing an old towel and wrapping it around our neck instantly turned us into superman and we were able to fly. When our toys came to life… When our playroom became an amphitheater and moms cooking pots were our drum set begging to be played for a sold out crowd.

Being adults makes us jaded and hard over time and we lose the wonder. The grace and mercy of God started well before we thought and it goes on forever. Because of Jesus and his great mercy we are adopted orphans of God. We now have access and can approach with boldness the King of kings. Such mystery and wonder and yet our calloused souls forget all about it.

Imagine God is like that hotel… We race around and go from room to room and learn more about Him. We explore in excitement, share our findings and discover God had planned greater things than we imagined. In a normal hotel, once all the rooms have been explored the fun is over, but With God the rooms are never ending.”

Job 11:7-9 “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.”

Every time we think we have God figured out another door in the “hotel” opens. May we NEVER lose the wonder.

ok so normally I do the Text-Fessional within the set list post. Those days are over folks. Now I do this because I don’t have a video camera, but I am thinking of going to Audio-Fessionals. That would put me on a different list though.

Alright enough of that…So last week I had a discussion with the pastor about our services and a bunch of visitors commented that the service was too long. Let me preface by saying that almost 90% of the church goers here are roman catholic and are very used to 1 hour services. Ours ran around 1 hour 45 min. Not too long, but longer then Roman catholic service. We do readings and creed, communion, and liturgy…along with that tons of music that is woven into the service from modern to old to liturgical. That is our church identity. We call it 3 streams blended worship. My definition of blended worship is not mixing hymns with matt redman. It is mixing the old with the new. Our service is framed around the Lords table and everything culminates at communion.

So with that said we had to shorten the service a little without messing with the integrity of what we are. So I did a poll and tons of people helped me out. we shortened the sermon to 30 min and moved a little aroung and ended the service in 1.5 hours. BRILLIANT! it worked and nobody was the wiser.

Uh…moving on to the music..

Great set this week..opened with I know that my redeemer lives. Great hymn…Mark Heard did a great version of it on the at the foot of the cross CD’s from the choir.

Went into the gloria…dropped the key from D to C..

Then we broke the fast song at the start mold and went into classic rushing Wind…it was a great song to open the praise set…prepare our heart…

“Jesus Your the one Who set my spirit free”

And then right into O Praise him chorus…and the rest of the song…I love this song its a real call to worship and and illustrates us singing with all of creation and the angels above.

Jumped into You amaze me…ok this song is from Michael Neale…I was first introduced to this at the integrity worship conference a few months ago and I can’t stop listening to it. This song just tugs at my spirit. It was amazing.

We did My new song that I co-wrote with my dad More of You. This song has really become a favorite with our church. People come up to me every week because the words just get into there sprirt.

“Take the world, give me You….Take my Heart Lord and make it new”

Communion we did the sanctus and mystery of faith (Liturgical music) ..And then into one of the best cross songs ever Sweetly Broken. Brilliant song and really makes you focus and tune into what Christ did for us. Then into super slow version of bless his name…and when communion ended I sped it up to normal tempo and volume. The 2 songs were perfect….thank you for the cross…thanks you for the blood….and then into…come sing for joy and bless his name.

Then we ended with Never Let Go…nuff said that song is just freakin’ great…and the congregation just loves it.